It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like A Tight Wallet Christmas

I’ve been trying for weeks to schedule my trip to visit my family in New Mexico over Christmas but I feel like I’m banging my head against a brick wall…maybe because I’m too cheap. I really think I should only have to pay about $400 for tickets, if that, but for the most part, the tickets I’m seeing are more than $500 and as great as $715.

To complicate things, Delta stopped flying in and out of Portland this September and after today, Southwest won’t be flying in and out of Boston, if I understand the error message I get on their website when I try to schedule a flight from there.

I have tried using Orbitz, Travelocity, Hotwire, Priceline.com, CheapTickets, and Expedia.com. Hotwire was the most useless waste of time as every button I clicked ended saying “not available”. Priceline kept giving me the airfares for other airports, not the ones I selected in the search. Expedia turned out to be the most expensive.

Basically, I just want to go from Portland to El Paso or Tuscon. I’m willing to leave from Boston and very possibly Manchester, NH, depending. I can ride round trip on a bus to Boston for $40 or to Manchester for $116 and with Manchester, I’d have to have a flight that leaves after 9am and arrives back before 7pm; there’s more leeway with Boston. Obviously, I’d prefer to fly out of Portland and come back the same way.

I have tried all sorts combinations with leaving 12/21 to 12/23 and arriving back 12/27 or 12/28. I’ve tried starting in Portland, Boston, and Manchester and arriving in El Paso or Tuscon. I’ve even tried using Independence Air to fly to Atlanta or Las Vegas and then use another airline for the rest of the trip. Absolutely no go.

So far the cheapest I’ve been able to find is $471, including taxes and fees, on Continental Airlines. By the way, if you buy direct from them, you can save yourself the $5 - $10 processing fee of those ticket comparison websites.

I even tried naming my own price at Priceline.com but of course, they kept trying to have me flying out of Rhode Island or Manchester and the difference of the ticket price for Manchester was not worth the $116 bus price.

I want to see my family, gosh darnit! I want it to be at Christmas!

I don’t know how people travel more than once a year and still afford to pay their bills.

Update: I finally broke down and bought tickets for Delta on Priceline.com, using the name your price option. I’ll be leaving out of Boston and visiting many cities along the way…so It’s $405 plus the $40 bus fare…plus I’ll need to take a taxi to and from the bus station in Portland…unless I make friends with someone before then who will be kind enough to pick me up and drop me off. Oh, it’s so complex and what a long, long day the travel days will be…

tags: travel

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